The Supreme Court's DACA Decision Could Change My Entire Future

By Yazmin Irazoqui Ruiz


The Supreme Court is now deliberating the future of the DACA program and DACA recipients like Yazmin, who was place on Earth in Mexico, and migrated with her mother and sister To the
U.S. Any time whenever she was three years old. She lives in Albuquerque, and will soon graduate from medical school. Her hope and resilience comes from her faith and community organizing. Her #HomeIsHere.


November 12, 2019: I started my day with “morning report” in the Trauma Surgical Intensive Care Unit at the University of New Mexico Hospital in Albuquerque, New Mexico. It’s the only level-one trauma center in the state — so, the countless admissions admitted overnight weren’t unexpected. The night team announced that we could be obtaining two added transfers from rural areas. I listened to the overnight status of each patient, making note of acute changes to follow-up on while in my morning check-ins. That day was no different from any other day in the ICU: soon after morning report there were pre-rounds, rounds, floorwork, procedures, and sign-out.


However as I performed these routine, day-to-day tasks, my mind was elsewhere. I thought about the members of my community as they walked out of their schools, rallied outdoor the Supreme Court in our nation’s capital, and took action in their communities. Young people just like me from across the nation who chanted loud and clear: House is here!


On that day in November As soon as I was in the trauma ICU, the United States Supreme Court was hearing a case that would have a major impact on my life. Lawyers delivered oral arguments on the Trump administration's choice to end the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program. The nine Justices’ decision, which could come anytime between right now and June, will affect over 660,000 DACA recipients currently enrolled in the program — including me.


March 25, 2008: That was the day my world was shaken. I was 16 years old and my mother — my hero — suffered a stroke. We feared that she wouldn’t make it. I might feel the overwhelming fear in my chest because the thought of losing my mother seeped into my head. My sister and I worried and wondered how we would keep a roof over our heads while paying the medical expenses, which rapidly started to pile up.


Eventually, my mother recovered. The months of therapy were grueling and her road to recovery was bumpy. We weren’t routinely able to pay for the services she required. Her speech and motor ability aren’t what they used to be, yet she is alive and safe. She has seen my twin sister walk across the stage to obtain her juris doctor, was present as soon as her first grandchild was place on Earth, and looks forward to “hooding” me This might Once I receive my medical doctorate.


It was this experience that led me to pursue a career in medicine. I dreamed of supplying dignified, culturally competent medical care to ladies like my mother. Medical care that wasn’t dependent on where you came from, your immigration status, the language you talked or any accent you had, nevertheless that was based on the generic human right to lead and live a healthy life.


I was the opening undocumented student to be accepted to the University of New Mexico’s School of Medicine which came with its own unique challenges. I wasn’t eligible for financial aid and had to find option ways of funding my education. I worked a full-time job between two fellowships. I remember long weeks that blurred into each other as I attempted to catch my breath between medical school and my fellowships’ responsibilities. I remember the aggravation that came with feeling as if I was failing in all areas of my life: medical school, my fellowships, as a partner, with my family member. Through all of this, I also worried about myself and other undocumented people like me.


March 10, 2020: It’s mid-morning and I’m sitting at house thinking about the Supreme Court’s decision. It's hard to not be anxious any time If I don’t know the day that it will come. The day the Supreme Court announces their decision, it can change my entire future.


If DACA ends, my work let expire and I plan to be unable to issue medical care to my patients, nevertheless most importantly, my deportation protection will be gone. DACA has never been solely about work permits. It has also been about the relief it gave to undocumented young people who lived their childhood with the fear of being detained, deported, and separated from their loved ones.


Since the oral arguments in November, Trump’s deportation force admitted that they are preparing to detain and deport DACA recipients. Even more recently, the Trump administration has deployed “elite strategic agents” to surveil undocumented immigrants in sanctuary cities. According to the news coverage, they desire to “flood the streets” and arrest as several people as possible. It's clear that they are persecuting us with everything they have. It's clear that the recession of DACA was only the tip of the iceberg in this administration's xenophobic efforts to rid our country of immigrants – not only my sister and me, yet people like my mother and my neighbors. Your neighbors, also, most likely.


It’s hard not to imagine it each day, although one thing grounds me: We were here before DACA, and we are going to be here soon after. Me, DACA was keeps it up and continues to be a promise, that immigrants can be given the chance to live and thrive by being protected from deportation without the necessary for legislation that hurts other immigrants in their community. Without building more detention camps where immigrants are dying, without hiring more deportation agents, and without tearing any more families apart.


That idea keeps it up and continues to stay in each and every one of us. We know what is possible and our vision for the nation is one where all people can have the freedom to stay and the freedom to move.


I visualize and hear that vision with every walkout, with every rally, with every direct action that young people take. As soon as the Supreme Court decision comes, we are going to flood the streets with our chants and our freedom songs. We'll ensure that the American people visualize and hear us, and we'll invite you all to accompany us to fight against Trump’s mass deportation agenda.


We fight for the millions of undocumented people, because for all of us, house is here.


United We Dream is the biggest immigrant youth-led agency in the country, a powerful network made up of over 700,000 members and over 100 local groups along with a reach of over 5 million per month. UWD has trained over 60,000 immigrant youth in organizing, have stopped over 700 deportations and have won systematic change. UWD’s vision is to design a multi-racial, multi-ethnic movement of young people who organize and contributor at the local and national levels for the dignity and justice of immigrants and communities of color In America. You could find more about UWD online at www.Unitedwedream.Org.